


Bucky Barnes Becomes a Gen Z Boi

by robin_writes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen z, Meme Lord Peter Parker, Memes, Peter is Worthy, Tik-tok, Vines, bucky barnes' gen z education, but im not even sorry, captain america vines, they recreate vines together, this is a whole big mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 15:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21412114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_writes/pseuds/robin_writes
Summary: Bucky recruits Peter to educate him on the ways of the 21st century, instead he gets lessons on vines, gen z language and ridiculous pranks. Also, Peter comes out as Spider-Man on Tiktok of all things.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 18
Kudos: 547





	Bucky Barnes Becomes a Gen Z Boi

When Bucky moved into the recently renovated (again) Avengers Tower, both Steve and Tony had promised to teach him the ways of the 21st century. But Steve didn’t know all that much himself, having spent most of his time out of the ice training or on missions. And Tony was constantly busy; between Stark Industries, replacing Avengers tech, going on Avengers missions and spending every other waking hour in his lab, he had no time for Bucky’s re-integration into modern society. So, Bucky had to find another source.

There was some amalgamation of robots and goo attacking the downtown area one day and all the Avengers were called out. Except Bucky because he hadn’t been cleared for combat yet, and the strange Spider-kid who lived with them sometimes, there was a weird relationship between him and Tony and he wasn’t allowed to go out on every mission.

Bucky was tense, in all the lives he’d lived, he never liked asking anyone for help. And yet it had been months and the only progress he had made was watching a few movies from the 80s.

The kid was wearing flannel pyjama bottoms and a huge, worn AC/DC top with bunny slippers. He was hanging out in the main living area, on the couch with a large device that Bucky had seen Tony use a lot. It looked like a big phone. He cleared his throat. The kid craned his head upside down to look at Bucky behind him. “Howdy, what’re you doing?” He said. Bucky thought maybe his name was Peter or possibly some form of ‘What the fuck kid?’ because of how often Tony said it.

“I, uh… I’m trying to get up to date with the future. Can you help me?” Bucky moved awkwardly so he was standing in front of Peter.

“Sure, my dude. Let’s do it.” Peter put his device down and patted the couch. Bucky sat stiffly. “First, you’ve gotta relax. Or I’m gonna have to vibe check you and that’s not gonna be fun for either of us.”

“Vibe check?”

“Umm… we’ll work up to that.”

Bucky managed to lessen the tension in his muscles. “Neat! So, how far have you gotten by yourself?”

“Steve showed me the ghostbusters movie and Return of the Jedi, I think. But I didn’t really follow it.”

“My apologies for that one, Cyborg. That’s the sixth episode. You’re okay to skip the first three but not four and five.”

“Cyborg?”

“Sorry, I’m just fishing for cool nicknames, too insensitive?” Peter grimaced.

“No, I just don’t get you. Maybe we should start with language?”

“You sure you’re ready for that?”

“I like a challenge.” Bucky’s eyes sparkled and Peter shifted to grab his device.

* * *

The teaching was slow. Peter had school to go to during the week, and although Bucky was a pretty quick learner, there was a lot to go over. “So, you don’t talk gen z to everyone, just some people?”

“Yup. Most non-gen z-ers don’t get it. It’s a mood. A general overwhelming feeling of fear and apathy.” This time Peter was wearing Heeley’s. He had also found Bucky a pair in his size, black sneakers with silver lighting bolts down the side ‘to make him go faster’, and they were wearing them around the tower.

“Don’t those two feelings cancel each other out?” Bucky asked, doing a good job at staying upright.

“You would think. But nope. It’s like… guess I’ll just die.” Peter said with a blank expression and then he intentionally face-planted.

“You okay?” Bucky skated over to him.

“I’m taking a nap.”

“What?”

“I’m gonna take a nap right here. Class is over. Keep the wheels, make sure you practice.”

Bucky wasn’t sure whether to leave the kid in the hallway, lying on the floor. But after a few seconds of indecision he heard snoring from the kid. “Huh. That’s… huh.”

* * *

The next lesson was actually while the Avengers were in the tower. Peter texted Bucky. ‘Class is in session. My room. Bring a knife.’ Steve raised his eyebrows as Bucky’s phone went off. “Everything okay Buck?”

“Sure Stevie. I’ve got to see a man about a horse.” Bucky stood and left the room. It wasn’t quite gen z but it was his version of it at least, weird humour from when he was alive.

“What?”

Bucky knocked on Peter’s door. “Hey kid. Can I come in?”

“You got the knife?” Peter called through the door.

“Yeah?” Bucky slipped it out of his boot, he never didn’t have a knife.

“Come in and say ‘you ready to fucking die?’”

“Okay.” Bucky had stopped questioning the kid on the first day. He opened the door, knife out and said “You ready to fucking die?” Peter was on his bed and looked Bucky dead in the eyes.

“No, I’m a bad bitch you can’t kill me. Next lesson: vines. Come sit.”

This time when Bucky sat down next to the kid, he was automatically relaxed. His soldier paranoia never turned off but he was less tense around Peter. “We’ve got a lot to go through. Hope you don’t have breakfast plans.”

“Kid, it’s 2pm.”

“I know.” Peter said seriously and moved his device, a tablet apparently, between them so they could both see it. And then he started on a lecture about an app that ran from January 2013 to December 2016 and how it rocked a generation.

* * *

Later that night

“Hey, has anyone seen Bucky?” Steve walked into the kitchen.

“Not since this morning. You lost him or something?” Clint said.

“Something like that.”

“Him and Spider-Boy have been spending a lot of time together recently. Maybe he’s with Peter.”

“I wonder what they’re doing.”

Upstairs

“So, I’m sitting there, barbecue sauce on my titties…” Peter started and they both broke out into laughter.

“I can’t believe this one guy made vines about Steve.”

“I know right, I’ve always wanted to trap him into recreating one with me. That’s the American Dream right there.”

* * *

It was movie night and Clint’s turn to pick the movie. “What does everyone want to order in?” Tony asked before everyone got comfy on the couches. “Pete?” Peter turned his head to glance at Bucky and then looked back at Tony.

“Can I get uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boneless pizza?” Peter said seriously. On the other couch, Steve could feel Bucky’s shoulders shake with laughter.

“Pete, I’m pretty sure all pizzas are boneless.” Tony said in confusion.

“Words can’t hurt me, these shades are Gucci.”

“You’re not wearing shades.”

“These shades are Gucci.” Peter repeated until Bucky fell off the couch laughing.

“Mother trucker dude, that hurt like a butt cheek on a stick.” Bucky said as he picked himself up. Peter started giggling.

“What the hell is happening?” Tony said under his breath.

“It’s not a… phase mom, it’s… who I really am.” Peter said between breaths.

They settled down to watch the movie, it was Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, because every time it was Clint’s turn to pick a movie, he just chose the next Mission Impossible film.

* * *

“Hey Stevie, can I borrow your suit for an hour?” Bucky said as he walked into the kitchen.

“What for?” Steve was instantly suspicious. The week before he had leant Bucky his shield and found it a day later encased in jell-o which was an incredible feat seeing as the shield was too wide to fit in the fridge.

“Just for an hour. I’ll get it back to you in perfect condition.”

“Fine, but if you damage it, it won’t be me on your ass, it’ll be Tony.” Steve said, Bucky saluted and ran off.

He headed to get changed into Steve’s suit before going to Peter’s room. He also made sure to tie back his hair and pull the cowl over his head. He and Steve were pretty much the same build, barring the metal arm, since the serum. And with his hair out of sight, Bucky made a pretty good Captain America. Bucky knocked on Peter’s door.

“Come on in.” He called out and Bucky opened the door. Instantly, Peter’s eyes lit up. “Vell if it isn’t Captain America.” He said.

“But it is me.” Bucky replied.

“No itz an expression.”

“Your Nazi tricks won’t work on me.” Bucky said and Peter collapsed into his bed wheezing.

“We have to set up a Tiktok account right now.”

They sat for a moment, setting up the account and then when it was up, they ran through the vine again, and uploaded it. “Let’s do another one.” Peter lifted the phone to record again. “How did you take down Captain America?” He turned the camera a little. “Ve shot him in ze legs because his shield iz the size of a dinner plate and he iz an idiot.” And then he flipped it to Bucky.

“Hey!” Bucky said, catching on. Peter laughed.

They spent the rest of Bucky’s allotted hour with the suit recreating Patrick William Charlton’s Captain America vines and uploading them to Tiktok. Peter explained it as the bastard child of vine that totally shouldn’t be as good as it is, but a lot of the original vine creators moved into that platform once vine died.

“Oh, you should do the Spider-Man Wednesday vine with your costume!” Bucky said once he’d changed out of Steve’s suit.

“That would make an incredible identity reveal.”

“I didn’t think about that, maybe you could keep the mask on and wear the goggles over it.”

“No, I think I’m ready. Give me a second.” Peter disappeared to put on his Spider-Man suit. He had a great idea.

Peter was bouncing from toe to toe as he looked for his swimming goggles. They moved into the bathroom so they could get him in the mirror. “Roll the camera Cyborg.”

“Rolling.” Bucky smiled. He was going to be in so much trouble after this.

“It is Wednesday my dudes, aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.” Peter turned to look directly into the phone camera. “What up, I’m Peter, I’m 15 and I beat up bad guys on my weekends.” They titled the Tiktok ‘Would the real Spider-Man please stand up?’ and uploaded it. “Tony’s going to murder me.” Peter said.

Sure enough, twenty-three minutes later, JARVIS asked Peter to head down to Tony’s workshop. “RIP me, amiright.” He said to Bucky as he left.

“I’ll be here, chillin’ in Cedar Rapids.” Bucky said, scrolling through Tiktok.

Tony looked angry. “Hey Mr Stark, I’ve always wondered why the Hulk didn’t turn red, ‘cause you know red is the socially accepted colour for anger. Or why we, as a society, didn’t change our common sense view of red as anger to green as anger following the introduction of the Hulk.” He said.

“Kid.” Tony said and Peter stopped. “You could’ve given me and Pepper some warning if you were planning on coming out publicly as Spider-Man. There’s still some time to sweep this under the rug. We could make you a new suit that looks slightly different, say this Peter kid got a good look at Spider-Man and recreated the suit from his memory to get famous. There are ways.”

“Nah, it’s cool Mr Stark. I think it’s time.”

“Time? You’re fifteen.” Tony looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel.

“Yeah I know. But if I want to eventually join the Avengers isn’t not having a secret identity a prerequisite? Name one Avenger who still keeps their identity hidden.”

“Well…”

“Exactly. Even the spies are well-known. I just thought that it’s important the world know that Spider-Man is just a kid from Queens and anyone can do good if they put their mind to it.”

“But you’re not just a kid from Queens, Pete. You were bitten by a radioactive spider.”

“The point still applies. I could’ve sat on my powers for years, but one of the first things I did was help people. Sometimes it just takes a catalyst. I’m hoping to be that catalyst for others.”

“Can I go now? Bucky and I are trying to figure out if we can encase Thor’s hammer in jell-o?”

“Sure kid, you can go.”

The nightmare pair were planning on making the jell-o around Thor’s hammer and somehow refrigerating it on the spot, but when Peter was trying to get the underneath of the hammer coated, he accidentally lifted it. “Oh.” He said in shock. “So apparently that’s a thing now.” He said as he lifted Mjölnir to cost the bottom.

“What the fuck Richard?” Bucky said staring at him. The pair shrugged and then Bucky took the shelves out of the fridge and they placed it right in.

Thor didn’t find it for four days and most of the jell-o was already gone because Clint kept on cutting pieces off to snack on. Peter and Bucky never said a word about what happened.


End file.
